John Stauber

John Stauber is an investigative writer, public speaker, organizer and consultant to non-profit and public interest organizations. He founded the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) in 1993 to create what at the time was the only public interest and media organization dedicated to exposing organized corporate and government propaganda and its impacts on democracy, public information and democratic social change. Stauber served for sixteen years as CMD's executive directory and on its board of directors. In 2009 Stauber stepped down and Lisa Graves became CMD's Executive Director. (See his Official Bio on the CMD website).

In 1995 Stauber's first book, primarily an exposé of the dark side of 20th century propaganda, also exposed the ongoing PR scam of renaming sewage sludge with the Orwellian term "biosolids" and dumping it on farms and gardens. Stauber co-authored six books for CMD beginning with 1995's Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! and including the 2003 New York Times best seller Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq

Prior to founding CMD in 1993, Stauber worked with or founded a number of non-profit research, advocacy and community-based organizations. They include the Coalition for Economic Alternatives (1973-79), opposing and stopping Agent Orange aerial spraying in Wisconsin by the US Forest Service; the Peoples Bicentennial Commission, (1974-76) promoting economic democracy; the Citizens National Forest Coalition (1978-79), organizing against Agent Orange at the national level; Stop Project E.L.F., opposing the US Navy's nuclear first-strike communications system (1979-84); the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua (1985-88) building sister-city relationships between the US and Nicaragua; and the Foundation on Economic Trends exposing and opposing commercialization of Monsanto's genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone. (1988-93). The BGH work inspired Stauber to start the Center for Media and Democracy in 1993 after he was spied upon by the Burson-Marsteller PR firm working for the companies developing Bovine Growth Hormone. From May, 2010 to May, 2011 Stauber was a senior adviser helping create the Food Rights Network.

Contact

 * Email: John.Stauber AT Gmail.com

Books by John Stauber
Stauber co-authored six books for the Center for Media and Democracy between 1995 and 2006:
 * Toxic Sludge Is Good For You! Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
 * Mad Cow U.S.A.
 * Trust Us, We're Experts! How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future
 * Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq;
 * Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State
 * The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Center for Media and Democracy
 * Fake news
 * Food Rights Network
 * Pentagon military analyst program

2011

 * Jill Richardson, Why Is the Monterey Aquarium Greenwashing Sewage Sludge?, FireDogLake, May 19, 2011.
 * Jeffrey St. Clair, How Green Became the Color of Money: A Concise History of the Rise and Fall of the Environmental EstablishmentHow Green Became the Color of Money, Counterpunch, April 22, 2011.
 * Josh Harkinson, Is Your Organic Compost Really Sewage Sludge?, Mother Jones, 4/27/11.
 * Michael Brbarop, In Elite Library Archives, a Dispute Over a Trove, New York Times, April 22, 2011.
 * Toby Wollin, Would You Like A Bit Of Heavy Metal With That?, FireDogLake, April 12, 2011.

2010

 * Shawn Doherty, Vital Signs: Will health care reform crash after Massachusetts election?, Capital Times, January 20, 2010.
 * Suzanne Goldenberg, US chef Alice Waters criticised over sewage fertiliser: Top US healthy-eating chef Alice Waters attacked for supporting fertiliser made of sewage that activists say contains toxins, UK Guardian, April 1, 2010.
 * Peter Fimrite, Groups make stink over S.F. 'biosolid' compost, SF Chronicle, April 7, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, Francesca Takes Legal Action over Sludge Article, La Vida Locavore blog, April 7, 2010.
 * Leora Broydo Vestel, Food Groups Clash Over Compost Sludge, New York Times Green Inc. blog, April 9 2010.
 * Barry Estabrook, Composted Sewage Stirs Up Bay Area Food Fight, The Atlantic, May 3, 2010.
 * Mari Margil, "Democracy Matters" New Podcast for October 21, 2010 - with our interview with John Stauber, CELDEF blog, October 21, 2010
 * Straight from the Sewer, Next American City, November 10, 2010.
 * Karyn Spory John Stauber gives UNI an inside look at the public relations world, The Northern Iowan, November 11, 2010.

External resources 2009 and Earlier
Stauber's articles, op-eds and interviews have appeared in scores of publications and websites. He has contributed research and writing to books by others including G.I. Guinea Pigs and Secrets and Lies. As an investigator and author he has been featured, interviewed or quoted by the PBS News Hour, Washington Post, New York Times, Der Spiegel, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, Business Week, NPR's On The Media,  CNN, NPR's On Point,  CBC, Democracy Now and other news media. You can view online interviews including a 2004 GNN.TV piece and a September 2006 interview during a book speaking tour.

Select Blogs By John Stauber

 * John Stauber, Obama's Cheerleaders Fall on their Faces, CommonDreams.org, November 3, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Chez Sludge: How the [[Sewage Sludge] Industry Bedded Alice Waters], PRWatch.org, July 9, 2010.
 * John Stauber, ACSH Makes Alice Waters a Poster Child for Toxic Sludge, PRWatch.org, April 12, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Chef Alice Waters and Chez Panisse in a Toxic Sludge Protest, PRWatch.org, March 31, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Waiter, There Is Toxic Sludge in my Organic Soup!, PRWatch.org, March 16, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Tea Party Money-Bomb Elects Scott Brown, Blows-Up Obamacare, January 19, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Where's the Outrage Over Obama's Health Care Propagandist, Jonathan Gruber?, January 14, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Beyond MoveOn: Using the Internet for Real Change, April 27, 2009.
 * John Stauber, How Obama Took Over the Peace Movement, March 27, 2009.
 * John Stauber, Obama and HCAN Marginalize Single Payer Health Care Reform, March 17, 2009.
 * John Stauber, Take This Job and Love It, February 23, 2009.
 * John Stauber, Winter Soldier, September 23, 2008.
 * John Stauber, Stauber Interviews Sirota, July 8, 2008.
 * John Stauber, Pentagon's Propaganda Documents Go Online, May 6, 2008.
 * John Stauber, Imbedding Military Propagandists into the News Media, April 22, 2008.
 * John Stauber, Iraq, the 'Gift' That Keeps on Bleeding, August 20, 2007.
 * John Stauber, Coffee with the Troops Fuels Debate and Netroots and the War, August 6, 2007.
 * John Stauber, Democratic Spin Won't End the War in Iraq, May 24, 2007.
 * John Stauber, Iraq: Why Won't MoveOn Move Forward?, March 18, 2007
 * John Stauber, A Victory for Press Freedom in the Ehren Watada Court Martial, February 4, 2007.
 * John Stauber, Defend the Press and Sarah Olson, January 27, 2007.
 * John Stauber, Half of Americans Still Believe in WMDs, They Saw Them on TV, August 8, 2006.
 * John Stauber, John Rendon's Long Strange Trip in the Terror Wars, July 10, 2006.
 * John Stauber, US "Atypical" Mad Cow Threat Was Predicted, June 14, 2006.
 * John Stauber, Oprah Not "The Only Mad Cow In America," Thanks to Texas Governor Perry, June 30, 2005